Archive for January, 2010

It’s been just over two months since I moved to North Wales and started my new life as a brewer. The landscape here is beautiful… I look around at the mountains I can see from my new home and think to myself: “cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger….”

But where to begin? The lure of the mountains of Snowdonia National Park, which is practically in my backyard, is strong, but another summit beckons… one whose name has been lovingly adopted by my new favourite (f-you spell checker, I’m in Britain now) brewery… The Great Orme.

The Great Orme Brewery, where I spend my days brewing beer and drinking the profits, isn’t on the Great Orme, but rather has a commanding view of it from the property:

So today, the 3rd day of 2010, I set out with the founder of the Great Orme Brewery to consume my first Welsh Summit Cheeseburger (but not the first), Jonathan’s first ever Summit Cheeseburger, and to share a pint of the brewery’s flagship beer Orme on the summit of the land mass it was named after.

En-route to the Great Orme, we passed a world famous burger joint where we procured two “Big Tasty with Bacon” cheeseburgers. (Which, despite all my previous complaints about this restaurant, was actually quite good… must be the local beef.) The summit beckoned to us from just over yonder…

The Great Orme (elevation 207 m, or 679 ft) is quite the destination during the tourist season (this is for all of you who have threatened promised to visit me), with such features as a tram that will take you close to the summit (for the lazy), a cable car that will take you within 20 vertical feet of the summit (for the really lazy), wild goats (for me), and a year-round ski slope (I’m embarrassed for these people):

It was a perfect day for a hike to the summit… sunny skies, no wind, and crisp temperatures hovering just above the freezing point. The views from the trail and the summit were fantastic, and upon arrival at the stone marking the summit, we feasted.

Jonathan says he now has a taste for Summit Cheeseburgers (and a New Year’s Resolution that has something to do with weight loss… hmm… not sure how well that will work for him), so in honour (again… f-you spell checker) of his local heritage (and because he thought names should be assigned rather than picked by oneself), I now bestow upon him the trail name Welsh Rarebit.

One final view of Wales to share with you, taken on our descent… Goats and rivers and mountains, oh my! (Maybe I should start a side-business publishing postcards?!?)